I carefully put the Heaven-burning Armor inside my bag. Although I no longer needed it, it could still fetch me at least ten thousand RMB at Sky City. Immortal-grade metal-armor equipment was incredibly rare, and one with offensive stats like the Heaven-burning Armor, even more so.

I checked out the Guardian Dragon Armor for a moment. A layer of thin patterns that looked like dragon scales floated above the metal, and a dense draconic aura coursed within. The key strength of the Guardian Dragon Armor lay not in its Defense, but the fact that it increased all 4 base attributes. For example, the 2650-point increase to Intelligence was going to make God Devil Break a lot less dangerous to me. The conversion of 10% of my damage received into HP was great too. Together with the Chill of the Nine Provinces’ 20% lifesteal, I was now more or less an official member of the "battle recovery style”. Battle recovery style sounded exactly like what it was; a PvP philosophy that emphasized recovery through fighting. Generally speaking, players like that would prioritize items with either passive regeneration or lifesteal. At the price of a higher chance of being one-shot, they thrived in sustain. Of course, there were countless other philosophies, such as classic Defense and evasion rate–based builds, or unorthodox thorn-damage builds. Of course, most builds were mixtures of both, in pursuit of the perfect combination that would be versatile against all offensive builds.

Finally, the Guardian Dragon Armor increased my Tactics by 220. This was great because the Tactics stat was the variable that affected the attack power of a Divine General Skill. Everyone knew this.

"Hello? Can we check out the dagger already?" Lin Yixin asked while staring at the dagger in my hand; one of the four pieces of equipment Mountain Guardian had dropped.

I picked up the dagger. It was only 30 cm long and 3 cm wide, but some sort of sharp, cyan frost surrounded its body. When I tried to touch them, it felt like the cold was cutting into my skin. I didn’t want to know how it would feel if the blade actually pierced my body. I waved a hand across it to bring up the stats screen, and the girls beamed immediately—

Dragonfrost (Ancient Immortal-grade, Outstanding★★★★★★)

Attack: 10200~12500

Strength: +1950

Stamina: +1700

Agility: +1650

Intelligence: +1400

Tactics: +145

Passive: Increases user’s Attack by 120%

Passive: When attacking with Dragonfrost, 2% chance to freeze the target for 7 seconds

Slots: 15

Level Requirement: 220

Reputation Requirement: 500000

……

I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out, "God damn, an Ancient Immortal-grade dagger with a ceiling of 12000 Attack? This is just ridiculous! Yiyi, you lucky girl. Or maybe… Do you want this, Beiming?"

The Dark Archer shook her head. "No need, big brother. I use my dagger for defense, while Sister Lin Yixin uses hers for offense. That is why she needs a dagger with high Attack far more than I do, not to mention that it’s way stronger than her main weapon, the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword. This dagger is exactly what she needs to supplement her inferior Attack right now, just like the Suppressing Fire Sword for Sister Eve."

So, I passed the dagger to Lin Yixin and said, "Beiming forfeited, and both Eve and I wear shields as our offhands. This can only be yours."

"Okay…"

Lin Yixin acknowledged in a gentle tone and accepted the dagger. After she equipped it, she gave it a tentative swing. The weapon left a trail of frosty light behind its path, which both delighted and amazed Lin Yixin deeply. "It’s definitely stronger than the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword for sure. Extreme Break will be even greater now."

Murong Mingyue said, "If I remember correctly, Yiyi can equip both her dagger and a mainhand weapon at the same time, right? That means you just gained stats under all four base attributes, 145 Tactics and 120% Attack outright. That’s a ridiculous advantage compared to most players. No wonder people call you the Fruit Knife Goddess…"

Lin Yixin smiled humbly. "I just got lucky. I wouldn’t have gotten this class if I hadn’t run into a random teleportation formation and was teleported to some cave not long after the servers opened."

……

I checked the remaining two pieces of equipment. The cloth-armor wristguards were Level 220 Immortal-grade equipment that boosted Magic Attack power by 70%. Obviously, this was Lian Xin’s. The ring increased Strength, Stamina and Intelligence by a lot and boosted both Attack and Defense by 35%. We decided that He Yi should have it because she was a magic knight—a tank with high HP and strong Defense—and she needed a solution against God Devil Break as soon as possible. That was why the ring suited her more than the rest of us. Equipment that increased all four base attributes were too rare right now; only Divine and Sacred Armaments were guaranteed to do so. Some Ancient and Archean Immortal-grade equipment boosted all the attributes as well, but the chance was only around 30%.

We distributed the high-rank gems and magic stones after the equipment distribution was done.

Then, I rose to my feet, looked to the heart of Dragon Domain and said, "I think we should enter the canyon as soon as possible. There’s no point wasting time here. We also need to grind some mobs and regain our Divine Energy Points."

"Yeah. Let’s go!"

We were just about to take our leave when the canyon entrance suddenly trembled. To our shock, Mountain Guardian’s body was trembling, and we could hear roars escaping its throat. Blood red runes circulated around its armor, reddish light seeped out of the earth beneath it, and the sky turned dark without warning. As a column of red light enveloped Mountain Guardian, we received a system notification—

Ding!

System Notice: Warning, Mountain Guardian will revive in 5 minutes with its HP, Attack and Defense increased by 10%, and drop rate decreased by 70%. Mountain Guardian is the undead guardian of Dragon Domain. Every time it dies, it revives in 10 minutes, gains 10% stats to certain attributes, and gradually loses its drop rate.

……

"Shit! Let’s go!"

I activated my Fusion Armor, grabbed Murong Mingyue’s hand and ran right through the entrance. It wasn’t until we were 500 yards away from Mountain Guardian’s body that we finally came to a stop.

"You know, maybe we should try to kill Mountain Guardian one more time? It still has 30% of its existing drop rate, right?" Beiming Xue suggested.

He Yi chuckled. "But Beiming, our quest isn’t to kill Mountain Guardian, not to mention that it is strong enough to kill all of us multiple times even in its unenhanced form. It just isn’t worth it for 30% of its original drop rate. Personally, I think we should seek out the Dragonslaying Sword first and decide our next step later."

Lin Yixin nodded in agreement. "Sister He Yi is correct. Let’s complete our actual quest first before doing anything else. We aren’t here on a standard grinding trip after all. Our primary objective is to find the Dragonslaying Sword as soon as possible and complete the SSS Rank main quest, especially since it gives out Luck as a reward."

"Yeah, you’re right!"

All the girls understood that no equipment was worth more than Luck in this game.

……

As we continued forward, I, the Phantom Wolf King and my apparition took point again. I watched both my surroundings and the coordinates on the map screen carefully. The areas in front of us were growing redder and redder, which meant that we were in the heart of Dragon Domain right now. A hundred thousand years ago, this map would be a prosperous domain where giant dragons soared the sky, and dragon knights trained in groups on the ground. Unfortunately, these ancient heroes had either died or become tragic characters like Callan, the chained knight.

We trekked along a mountain range called the Iron Wall Mountain Range. Its cliffs towered over us, and the number of wilted grass stalks beneath our feet grew the deeper we traveled.

Lin Yixin looked up as she rode at a canter. There were rows and rows of giant holes in the mountain range for some reason. Moreover, they were probably too tall for anyone to climb up to. She asked with a tiny frown on her face, "What are these caves used for? Your normal human would never be able to climb up there, and yet I can see chiseled holes in some of the caves. What are they?"

Lian Xin suggested, "Maybe there used to be mountaintop cavemen?"

I laughed. "Of course not."

"What are they then?" Beiming Xue asked.

I thought for a moment before answering, "From what I remember from the in-game database regarding dragons, the large majority of Holy Giant Dragons, Gem Dragons and Metal Dragons possess wings that allow them to fly. They use their breaths to carve holes into towering cliffs much like the ones right beside us and use it as a lair. Therefore, these caves have to have been their lairs in the past. Unfortunately, the giant dragons are all gone, so these lairs are nothing more than ruins now."

He Yi said smilingly, "Yeah, it’s a shame the Holy Giant Dragons are all gone. I would’ve liked to capture one as a mount…"

I grimaced. "Eve, Holy Giant Dragons aren’t so numerous that you can catch one like livestock in a market, not even in the past. According to the database, the strongest empire in the history of Heavenblessed only managed to create 1 Holy Dragon Knight Legion, and only 4 of them were true Holy Giant Dragon Knights. The rest rode just pseudo-dragons. If even the NPCs can barely create a Holy Dragon Knight Legion, it’ll only be harder for us players."

It was at this moment Pure Love suddenly pointed her scepter at something in the distance. "Mob incoming. Ew, it’s so disgusting…"

……

Pu...

A bloody arm burst out from the earth beneath a tree. Falling leaves became attached to its body as it slowly crawled its way out of its hole. Face covered in red maple leaves, it let out a horrific chuckle before shambling toward us.

Rotted Smith (Fiend)

Level: 275

Introduction: A human who was once employed to build fortresses in Dragon Domain. During the invasion of the gods and devils, the smiths were cursed by an undead mage and turned into walking corpses before they were able to escape. Thousands and thousands of years later, their bones became a lot stronger than before, and they transformed into violent creatures with a craving for flesh.

The mob was only Level 275, so it was of no threat to us. As I charged toward the Rotted Smith though, even more mobs burst out of the ground until the whole place was chock-full of them. However, this was perfect because we were looking to grind back all the experience and Divine Energy Points we had lost during our fight against Mountain Guardian anyway. It would be bad if we ran into another boss but lacked the Divine Energy Points to use Heavenly River Transformation in a pinch. In fact, most players were incapable of battling any Ancient Immortal or Divine Rank boss that were Level 280 or higher. The best way we had to overcome the rank and level difference was through Heavenly River Transformation.

"I see a lot of mobs over there too. Let’s lure them all over so that Lu Chen can test out his new Guardian Dragon Armor!" He Yi suggested.

"No problem!"

Lin Yixin, Beiming Xue and I split up to aggro the mobs. A few minutes later, at least a thousand Rotted Smiths charged straight toward the gaping maw that was my Chill of the Nine Provinces.